Fable: The Unexpected Hero
by Naga Shark
Summary: A Yaut'ja mother wounded and pregnant running from an Arbitrator passes through a Wormhole to a new dimension and crashes in Albion. The son she caries is taken and raised by the New Guildmaster to become a hero. Will he follow the path of the hero or will he follow in his fathers foot steps and become a villain? Only time will tell. Proof read by Yuri Futanari! My wonderful Muse!
1. Episode 1 The Beginning

_**Fable: The Unexpected Hero**_

_**Prologue:**_

Our hero's story began in the deepest reaches of space, in a dimension unknown to the people of Albion, as a Female Yaut'ja, far into her pregnancy piloted her craft fast and recklessly, while attempting to escape an Arbitrator after her for her child.

The very reason is that the child they sought was that this was the only known offspring of the worst Bad-Blood in Yaut'ja history. He in fact came from a long line of Bad-Bloods, so bad in fact that the Arbitrator's had determined it to be genetically dominant, and therefore a guaranteed threat to all.

The Yaut'ja's name was Dat'thula, and she feared only for her pup's life.

She would do anything – anything at all to protect the child within her, even if it cost her own life.

The Arbitrator's ship was fast, armored and carried heavier armament than it took to dispatch such a light vessel as she flew in now.

The only thing she could rely on was her skills, natural agility, and the low mass of her ship.

She was trying to find a clean jump point for a wormhole but the asteroids were giving even her, a supreme ace pilot a hard time fixing on a clan section of space to punch and jump from.

If she did not jump soon, they were both space dust.

As she swerved to avoid an Asteroid her ship took a hit from the Arbitrator's main weapon causing her to be severely injured.

The Arbitrator's pilot felt he had them both now and gunned the engine to pounce, and hopefully scoop up the child and the reward, possibly a promotion.

Just then a wormhole opened before her ship and closed just as it fully passed through allowing her escape.

The Arbitrator's servant met a ballistic end as the asteroid Dath'thula had been swerving, which he had not paid close enough attention to, had been sucked into the space time gravity gap of the worm hole, dragging it across his path, rendering him and his ship into so many blazing particles in space.

This was a boon for the unborn Yaut'ja, for you see, it was fate that brought Dat'thula to a new dimension, as well as fate that led her ship to crash in a field a mile from the Hero's Guild, now rebuilt after the great battle with Jack of Blades.

On the very brink of death she crawled from the wreckage to be found by the New Guild Master, the son of the great hero who slew Jack of Blades 50 years earlier.

As her glowing green blood flowed and her life ebbed, she regarded him with intense pain in her eyes, and held her baby in her womb while uttering her last words, "Save my pup and raise him in the way of the warrior."

"Name him a strong name." She then used her wrist blades to give herself a C-Section dying once the young Yaut'ja is exposed.

The Guild Master took the child and replied to Dat'thula, "I will full fill your dying wish."

"**Episode 1: Brutus The Striker"**

Years passed and young Brutus readily became the head of his class.

Already as strong and fast as most of the graduating trainees, his peers afraid of him due to his strange looks and overwhelming fighting ability.

By the time he graduates he stands 8 foot 10 and has deep jungle green skin dappled with yellow spots as well as a dark blood red spot between his golden eyes. His hair long and thick looking like dreadlocks but in fact each lock is in fact a single strand of hair.

As Brutus was about to leave, striking forth into the world to make a name for himself, the Guild Master approached him from behind and admonished, "Brutus you have grown in the time since you came to us and I raised you as my son. There is one last detail that I must show you before you leave," he turned toward a long hallway known as 'The Hall of Fallen Heroes', "if you would follow me."

Brutus being the kindly dispositioned soul that he was followed his father to the Tomb of Hero's where he pulled down on a torch causing a hidden door to open.

The Guild Master then lead Brutus inside where a stone statue stood over a chest.

The statue instantly drew Brutus' attention, causing him to ask his Father. "Father who was this female who looked like me?"

The Guild master replied to the one he viewed as a son for the last 25 years, "My son that statue is of your mother whom died after having you." he began walking around the young Yaut'ja and the figurine, "Her dying request was to raise you as a warrior and to give you a strong name."

"Where is she buried?" he asked, "Is this her final resting place?"

"Her body was burned and her ashes spread over Bower Field," he waved a hand in the direction of where the child had been given to him by Brutus's mother, "but in that chest are all her weapons and armor that she was wearing along with what was in her ship."

"Why have you waited so long to tell me of this father?" he asked with many mixed emotions.

"I wanted to keep it safe and give it to you the day you graduated as a gift, my son." he stopped and with the press of a few buttons which seemed to light up on the forearm of the statue of his mother, "And now you have indeed graduated, doing honor to both her name as well as mine, and they are now yours."

Brutus stepped forward opening the internally illuminated chest and retrieved the items held within.

Placing the armor on and equipping his mothers wrist blades to his right arm, he realized he had to be satisfied with this much, seeing as the device on her left was destroyed beyond repair, having been kept only for posterity.

After equipping himself with all of his mother's personal possessions, Brutus thanked his father, embraced him firmly, bowed and left the tomb to begin his journey to become a hero and make a name for himself.

Will he be a hero or will he follow in his fathers foot steps? Only time will tell.


	2. Episode 2 The Darkness Stirs

**Episode 2: The Darkness stirs.**

Meanwhile, in a cell far beneath Bargate Prison, a subterranean dungeon, unknown and forgotten by all but a scarce few, sits a man.

This man is so dangerous and vile that the warden of the prison complex was forced to swear on penalty of death that this man be neither seen nor spoken to, but only to be fed his dismal and minimalistic rations, and then only once a day, by the yet unnamed hero who had slain the Jack of Blades.

This man was to never see the light of day as long as he lived. This man's name was Hardluk the Hammer.

Hardluk was a beast of a man who even dwarfed the giant ex-hero Twinblades, a man who stood nine feet tall, making even him seem as a mere child..

His mangy, greasy, long black hair was matted and tangled from thirty years without bathing or care, and his teeth had long ago rotted away. His eyes were filled with such vile hate that to lock eyes with him caused many a brave soul to tremble in terror and even lose control of their bowels. The rest of his body was a maze of scars inlaid between thick black body hair covering every inch of his muscular body.

The weapon he bore in battle was locked in a vault concealed beneath the thick inlaid stones of the warden's office floor.

This war hammer, a weapon of brutal and crushing warfare stood as tall as a normal man and weighted three hundred and fifty pounds.

On this day an evil glint sparked to life in his eyes and a gruesome smile grew upon his lips.

Unknown to those above his cell and the guards above, today is about to be a very bad day, for Hardluk The Hammer is about to make his breakout.

Hardluk stood from his cot and walked to the door of his cell as he had many times in the past, only this time the gate explodes outward with a well aimed hit, crushing the hapless guard who had come with his one daily meal.

With a dark, foreboding laugh, he charges up the stairs, aimed for the warden's office, his war hammer Bonecrusher calling to his dark, twisted mind like a long separated lover.

Any and every guard who tried to stop him met the painful deaths of either their heads being crushed against the walls or between his vise-like hands. It would be inaccurate to say he was unfazed by the gore of their brains squishing out of their bloodied skulls because it gave him a twisted thrill to see fresh gore and destruction.

Blasting the Wardens office door open in a single punch, an unbroken stream of screams could be heard all the way in Lynchfield Graveyard over 20 miles away as Hardluk systematically dismantled the man's body, one bone, piece of a bone, or bone joint at a time. The monstrous criminal roared with evil laughter until he only heard silence when the warden's blood loss was too great and he lapsed unto unconsciousness, his bowels and lower torso ripped from his upper half.

Instantly loosing interest and dropping the dying man's body, he proceeded to stomp and smash a hole in the stone floor until he could work his bloodied fingers under the pieces and rip them out of the floor one by one until he could access the locking mechanism of the vault.

Once he was to this point, he kicked and stomped on the old vault's lid until it bent and buckled.

Once an edge wide enough to get his fingers under showed up, he grabbed it and peeled it back until he could get a better grip and then he completely ripped the lid off of the vault, letting it smash into a nearby wall, making a hole as it went.

There inside lay his long lost lover in blood, Bonecrusher.

**Ep 2, Chapter 2**

Outside the Guild hall Brutus took his first steps into the outside world, having only known the Guild his entire life.

Taking a deep breath of the air he headed off into the world, heading for The Greatwood Entrance to start exploring this world.

Moments after entering Greatwood he was attacked by bandits, whose weapons and armor which his wrist blades cut through like a hot knife through butter.

Once he slew them all, a strange instinct awoke in him and he took the leaders skull from his body, ripping it, spine and all from his back and roaring to the heavens.

His first kill and his first trophy! Oh how happy he felt inside!

Onward he traveled, slaying bandits and huge wasps that dared to attack him.

Once he reached Greatwood Lake though, he came face to face with a much larger creature seemingly made of Earth yet alive with glowing red eyes. This was his first encounter with an Earth Troll.

As he remembers the name, his tusks twitch wide into his kinds form of a wide smile and he pounces, landing on its back as it was already busy fighting a bandit and a merchant.

He drove his wrist blades deep into the Trolls back piercing the gem that gives it form with a surgeons skill causing the mighty beast to crumble.

As it did so, Brutus pounces the bandit, pinning it to the stone fence by the wrist blades on his right wrist through the bandits heart.

He retracted the blades and walked over and speaks to the Merchant. "Are you alright good sir? You where not hurt to badly was you?" he asks.

"Why no thank you kind sir I thank ye for saving me. That is a fine weapon you have there. Would you like to buy some potions or food?" the merchant gratefully replied.

Brutus simply shook his head no and continues deeper into Greatwood smiling as he cuts down on the Bandit population.


	3. Episode 3 Evil Lurks

**Episode 3: Evil Lurks**

A day passed from the time Brutus left the merchant, bringing him to Greatwood Gorge.

After the Unnamed Hero left, the bandits had returned setting up their toll once again.

This time, however instead of the previous five thousand gold to pass safely, they demanded one hundred thousand gold.

Seeing as Brutus had no gold to his name, it was clear he had to fight his way through the bandits.

Sneaking up behind the first bandit, he yanked his blade skyward, cleaving him in two from crotch to crown.

Seeing the number of bandits ahead he then took to the trees much like his kind were wont to do. From on high he singled them out, snaring one after the other while no one caught on. No alarm went up.

He was fast and silent. His targets had not even the chance to scream as his wristblades sliced their windpipes destroying their vocal chords.

Within twenty minuets the bandits went in numbers from fifty down to one, the leader of the bandit gang.

Now that it was one on one, Brutus dropped silently down behind the leader who's name was Bertram and lets out a battle cry to alert Bertram to his presence.

To his credit Bertram did not soil himself at first. Instead he called for his men to get this monster. Slowly it dawned on him that his men are not coming.

It was soon apparent why as all forty-nine men were hanging from the branches, skinned and dripping their life blood onto the leaf litter under the trees.

Once Bertram noticed this is the moment he soiled himself in fear, running away only to have his heart split in two by a thrown dagger Brutus had taken from one of Bertram's own men.

Upon leaving the gorge he was spoken to by a Demon Door, a strange and mystical looking edifice rising up out of the ground, which upon his approach, began telling him that to enter to gain the weapon inside he would have to preform and act of great evil before his sight.

Brutus had no idea what this was all about, and did not care to play such foolish sounding games, so he merely shrugged and walked on, making his way towards the Greatwood Cullis Gate.

**Ep 3, Chapter 2**

Meanwhile far away, Hardluk has slain every man and woman in Bargate Prison and made his escape, Bonecrusher in hand still dripping blood and gore from his last ninety-five victims from the prison.

His current destination was The Hero's Guild, for revenge on the Unnamed Hero whom had had him locked away all those many years ago.

Unknown to Hardluk, however, the man who put him away had been dead for fifteen years and in his place ruled his eldest son, the man Brutus calls father.

**Ep 3, Chapter 3**

As Brutus entered the Greatwood Cullis Gate, he was assaulted by one of Albions most reviled pests Hobbes.

These are nasty carnivorous beasts that once were innocent children lead to the darkness and twisted by dark fairies called Nymphs. What they lack in strength and speed they made up for in sheer numbers. Attempting to swarm Brutus they only managed to be kicked, punched, sliced, and diced in a whirlwind of fists, feet, and wrist blades.

Brutus' trophy collecting instinct failed even kick in over the hobbes however, because he found them to be utterly disgusting creatures.

Greatwood Cullis Gate did not detain him long, and he soon entered the area where the hobbes call home, The Greatwood Caves.

Off to the right Brutus smelled the stench of more hobbes coming from a cave known to travelers as Hobbe Cave, but straight ahead lay the tunnel to Darkwood Marshes.

"Choices choices." he pondered within himself, "Do I go right and clear out the hobbes or straight ahead to Darkwood?" He scratched his lower left mandible as he pondered this conundrum.


	4. Episode 4: Hobbepocalypse

**Episode 4: Hobbepocalypse**

As Brutus ponders the desire to enter Hobbe Cave to clear it of the ugly brutes the insignia of the Hero's Guild vibrates and he heard the Guildmaster speak to him through it.

"Brutus my son I have dire news." the Guildmaster's voice came through, "A group of your guild mates went on a mission to Hobbe Cave and we just got an emergency signal from them. It seems they bit off more than they where ready for. I know you are in that area so please see if you can save them. Guildmaster out."

With that the insignia fell silent and Brutus nodded to himself and checked his weapons. It would seem he had a job here after all.

As soon as he stepped into the cave the smell of old blood and rotten meat greeted his nose even through his Iridium-44 metal mask given to him from his mother.

As he scanned the area, fresh blood can be seen as well as dead Hobbes. A few human arms and a leg were among the gore as well.

It is about that time that Brutus heard the horde of Hobbes and the first one came running his way only to fall as the end of his wrist blade exited the back of its neck, its body falling free and leaving its head behind.

Brutus roared forth an echoing challenge toward the Hobbe Horde.

Mere seconds passed before three dozen Hobbes came stampeding towards him.

The top two of his four tusks lifted in a grin as he charged, flashing forward with his great speed and using the power bestowed his kind he sends Hobbes flying, the smallest of them being slashed in twain from crown to crotch, or crotch to crown depending on the arc of the previous swing.

For the larger Hobbes of the horde, which were readily discerned by their deep red skin and the fact that they employed battle hammers, the warrior employed his Combi-stick. With this weapon he impaled countless dozens, or perhaps a hundred of them, but he made no effort to keep count. All that mattered was that they were dead and even this he knew more by reflex and instinct than by stopping to pay any attention to them in mid battle. Right here and now, he had one goal: kill until they stopped coming.

Even though they were defending their home, this warrior felt no remorse as he slayed them right and left. It was with the sheer joy of battle lust, inherited from the Bad-Blood genes of his father with which he waded through their falling corpses as if hewing down wheat in a field.

The moment the first large Hobbe swung for Brutus, he laughed at it as he removed the head of the cave dweller's hammer with the edge of his wrist blade, only to cleave its wielder's head in two vertically with the backswing.

With a roar of glee he leapt forward and with wrist blade and combi-stick hewing a bloody swath through the horde.

Seeing an unintended parting in the ranks of the milling horde of Hobbes, he reflexively leapt forward, raking both sides of the gap with his blades, gutting eighteen foes in a single pass before flipping onto his shoulders, swinging up and over to slice another six at skew angles, coming momentarily to rest on one knee, looking around for the next best path of mayhem.

As he started to stand, however, the horde mysteriously continued to part until a lone white Hobbe carrying a staff with an orb on the end fired a ball of blueish purple magic into Brutus' chest, blasting him backwards.

In a moment of rage Brutus leapt to his feet and fired one of the tangs of his wrist blades at the Hobbe Shaman piercing its skull between its eyes and flying out the back of its head to stab through three other shamans in the same manner.

After the last shaman fell, Brutus strode forward past terrified Hobbe warriors to retrieve the blade and reattach it to his wrist blade.

He looks around to get his bearings as if they didn't even exist and calmly strode in the direction of another chamber over to his right, the now terrified Hobbes giving way without resistance.

The moment he stepped through the chamber door however, he wished he had not.

Hanging from the walls were the ragged and bloody remains of twelve of his fellow guild mates.

One of them, screaming in agony was still alive, albeit just barely as he was losing blood from where his body had been pulled partially away by the ravenous denizens of the caves.

This was, in fact, one of the few who had treated him with respect and as an equal, and not a monster himself.

This was one who had even considered Brutus a true friend.

Instantly he re-exploded into rage.

In a running leap, he crossed a pool of water, wrist blades first, smashing through the monster's skull and sinking his fist clear to its pelvis before yanking back even before his feet struck the stone.

The resultant backlash divided the foe into multiple thin slabs of flesh and bone out the back, leaving a solitarily stripped spinal column and something akin to short ribs behind.

Since there were no other Hobbes in the chamber at the time Brutus, helped his friend down and took out his medipack undertook sealing first the wound of his missing arm, then proceeding on to the wounds to his abdomen.

Once he secured and stabilized his friend so it was safe to transport the man, he carefully carried him outside the cave where he quickly fashioned a stretcher from straight trees and Hobbes' hide.

After he had the guild compatriot nestled on the safe, relatively comfortable, if not abhorrently foul smelling stretcher, he set off to the Rose Cottage and asked the old woman of the house to watch over the injured youth.

He then headed back inside the labyrinth to see if he could find any other survivors.

He located and inspected the cave larder and found 3 others alive but in poor health.

Twenty Hobbes had gotten into a complex fight over who would get what parts of the humans, totally unaware that Brutus had silently slipped in.

They never knew he was there until Brutus removed his mother's Chakram, extending the blades and with inborn skill throwing it, decapitating fourteen of them and catches it before they even saw what had happened.

Flinging it again as they stood there dumbstricken the swift whirling blade quickly snuffed out the other six on the second pass.

Once again he removed his Medipack and treated the wounded so that he could safely move them to the Rose Cottage as well.

Knowing there was another three chambers to search, Brutus sat down and ate some prepared meat he had brought with him and drank a bottle of spring water.

When finished, he arose and proceeded to the central chamber of the cavern, the throne room.

When he enters the room, several Hobbes are merrily torturing captured merchants and elderly people who were not fast enough to escape or crafty enough to hide from the monsters.

This time Brutus withdrew his mother's Razor Whip and proceeded to flay the Hobbes with brutal cracks of the whip.

The razor whip, just like all of his other weapons was sharp enough to cut through bone and he split some down the middle while some he caught briefly about the neck before decapitating them with a quick flick of his wrist.

It only took him seconds to reduce the crowd to only one enemy.

This monster, however, seeming to have had the sense of survival to know it was vastly outmatched, panicked and ran for an exit, only to strike a heavy timber door hard enough to render its self unconscious.

Brutus strode casually up to it and jammed his hand into its back, gripping its spine with one hand, and repeating the wrist blade action he had performed before, and with a brutal yank ripped its spine and skull from its body, roaring in triumph.

He then helped the humans down and told them the way out is clear and to to head directly to the Rose Cottage, and that he would be following them there, just as soon as he finished clearing the last tunnel and the focus stone chamber.

Fitting words to action, he kicked the double timber doors open, but to his surprise, he found it to be empty.

Cautiously, he follows the tunnel to another door at its far end and opens it quite carefully and stealthily enters.

There beyond the door is a somewhat lower floored room which drops the distance of about two men's height below.

There is a constant blue glow from it's center and it is filled with vile items designed to perform evil rituals and place horrible hexes on people.

Down below him, in this hazy blue light, a Dark Nymph has a child trapped in in a blue force dome and is alone preparing to turn the child into another Hobbe.

Thankfully at this exact moment, the Dark Nymph was too focused on its evil deed to notice his stealthy entrance into the overhead antechamber.

Brutus knows what is about to happen, and he would rather die than see happen, so with the most careful use of the reflectivity of his wrist blades, Brutus catches the young girls eyes and motions for her to ignore him and not say a word, making a shushing motion with his fingers.

Thankfully she plays the part well and before the Nymph knows what is happening Brutus' Combi-stick blooms from her chest having pierced her heart.

She collapsed dead on the floor and the force dome vanished.

The moment it did so, the little girl, no more than six years old, ran and jumped into Brutus' arms thanking him for saving her.

The trip out of the cave was far easier this final time, with no more Hobbes alive to impede progress, and in minutes Brutus managed to reach the Rose Cottage and make more stretchers to carry those who were to injured to walk all the way back to the guild from whence they had come.

Once he had completed this task, he carried them all back to the Hero's Guild for much more thorough medical care.

Once they were all delivered safely to the guild however, Brutus set out once again for whatever else may lay beyond the horizon, his purse heavy with gold, gifts of gratitude from the survivors he saved, and from that time forward, his name began to be whispered about the land as the Great Hobbe Slayer!


	5. Episode 5: To travel the Dark Path

**Episode 5: To travel the Dark Path**

Hardluk the Hammer traveled from Bargate Prison to Lynchfield Graveyard, and took the Cullis Gate which as he understood to be a magical teleportation device to The Ancient Cullis Gate located in Darkwood.

Once here he slayed countless Hobbes and Bandits and even took down a mighty Earth Troll with a single crushing blow to its torso that shattered it to bits like a pile of leaves in a strong wind.

Upon arriving at the Ancient Cullis Gate he immediately strolled toward his first destination, the chapel of his personally chosen god, the Chapel of Skorm.

**Ep 5, Chapter 1**

Meanwhile Brutus had made his way back to the Greatwood Caves and headed past Hobbe Cave and into Darkwood proper.

After dealing with a dozen bandits and unfortunately more Hobbes, he managed to make it to the Darkwood Marshes where he found a weird fungus that was light blue in color yet when he approached it, it began to shaking.

Not knowing of their poisonous spores, he ventured to close and the nearest one exploded, spreading the spores around.

To his surprise the moment they touched his exposed skin they started to burn as if acid and even with his tough constitution, mere moments after being touched started to feel slightly sick.

He leapt back out of the spore cloud and started to feel better in less than a minute.

Seeing eleven more in the vicinity he took careful aim with Chakram in hand and destroyed them with the ranged weapon.

Once the spores settled, Brutus made his way past them and through the archway that lead to Darkwood Lake.

**Ep 5, Chapter 2**

Meanwhile Hardluk had made it to the Chapel and walked up to the two Priest of Skorm the dark god and knelt before them.

The Priests praised him as the Avatar of Skorm.

There at the chapel he prayed to his dark god for answers as to the location of the one who imprisoned him and how to lure him into a trap, only to find out that the man who took him down and had him locked up was now dead.

He then prayed for the answer if he had any children that he may take his revenge upon.

This answer, it turned out, would take a long time to determine, so he continued to pray, patiently waiting for this answer.

**Ep 5, Chapter 3**

Brutus could scarcely walk the land it seemed, without encountering either Hobbes or bandits dealing with an ambush from Bandits and Hobbes.

The first bandit to jump out at him from behind a tree was clove in twain by Brutus who instantly went on the offensive.

Eight more bandits rushed him only to meet their maker as Brutus became a whirling dervish of death.

Brutus waded through the squirmy scaly little urchins until he had enough and began stomping the nearest ones flat with his massive boots until he had enough room to begin kicking them like a collection children's toy balls.

Hobbes flew every which way, screaming in terror as they sailed.

They landed rolling, splattering face first, hitting trees, even getting stuck by their heads in the crotches of trees.

By the time Brutus was done launching the nasty little monsters, they covered an area easily as large as a wheat field.

There were moans of agony, please for mercy and the sounds of Hobbes spitting up dirt, rocks, grass, dead leaves, tree branches and their own teeth.

The last standing enemy was a Hobbe Shaman who was punted so hard between its tiny legs that it went flying at high speed towards the natural stone walls that lined the Lake to splatter against it and slide down to the water bonelessly.

Brutus still watching for any more enemies checked his surroundings to ensure that he was finally alone.

He stood tall and whipped his right foot in a arc away from himself flinging the blood from his boot.

He then slung his arm left and right violently to sling any remaining blood from the bladed before with a simple flex of his wrist he retracted them.

Being satisfied that the fool hearty Hobbes had been taught an adequate lesson, and all of the bandits were on their way to eternal judgment, he walked along the woodland road until he reached Darkwood Camp.

This small semi clear open area in the middle of the great woods was a place often used by weary travelers to camp with at least some chance of seeing bandits and other foul beings before they might attack.

Some merchants had already set up camp for the night, and although they cringed in terror at his sight as he passed through the clearing, when he heard their gasps of fear, he looked up and said, "Oh, hello." and waved peacefully to them.

Little did he know, however that this pace was also near the Chapel of Skorm.

Due to not knowing that a threat to his adopted father was close at hand, Brutus opted not to camp there and continued beyond the camp toward the Ancient Cullis Gate.

**Ep 5, Chapter 4**

As Brutus was just drawing within sight of the gateway to pass through, Hardluk was in the process of receiving his prayerfully obtained answer.

The man who locked him up had a son who had taken up the reigns as the new Guildmaster.

With this knowledge in hand Hardluk left the Chapel and killed the Traders in the Darkwood Camp before heading to Darkwood Lake only to pause at the scene of brutal death before him.

Wondering just who or what could have done such a beautiful work of gory art as this, he thought to himself, "I must find them at once!"

Suiting actions to thought, he turned on his heel and ran back the way he came to try to find the one responsible.

**Ep 5, Chapter 5**

Brutus arrived at the gate only to witness total destruction and a complete lack of signs of battle. It was the sheer brutality of a clearly one sided massacre and promptly he got sick to his stomach at the sight.

He felt the still warm blood of the closest victim and to his horror it was only hours old. Whoever had done this was not far away.

The thought that crossed his mind is that only a monster could have done this and it must be stopped.

With that thought in mind he turned around and headed back through the woods at a full run in time to see a massive man even taller than he come rushing through carrying the largest war hammer he had ever seen.

This man had a sadistically deranged look in his eyes.

THIS man was an evil lunatic.

Blood and gore dripped from the hammer and Brutus instantly knew this was the monster responsible.

**Ep 5, Chapter 6**

As Hardluk passed back into the camp he was confronted by a clearly non human being that stood 8 feet 10 inches tall with deep jungle green skin dappled with yellow spots.

The tall almost-but-not-quite human life form was new to him.

It wore a silver looking metal mask that looked like the frozen face of a demon.

Its 'hair' long and thick looking like dreadlocks but in fact each seeming 'lock' was in fact a single strand of living tissue.

A device was mounted on its right forearms and wrist with two gleaming silver prongs slightly extended.

There bore too, a metallic looking whip at its side coiled up, and a round metal disk on its other side.

It had a half chest plate to protect its heart and Hardluk could feel it staring at him.

It stood loosely, like an expert fighter, and yet its exposed muscles were taught and ready to strike.

There was a cold, seething, alien type of fury behind the mask.


End file.
